001e e e all right I think we're good to go all right welcome to the Summers Board of Education meeting on Monday March 24th and I will call the meeting to order at 7:01 if You' like to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation godice good evening March's board appreciation month so what you have is a a small token of our appreciation for your hard work and partnership I'll just say publicly that I greatly appreciate your support as a board and the hours that you put in after hours after your jobs um to come in and help us solve problem to move the district forward I'd like to note that Nick kosi at the high school
002did the engraving for us so we've been working on this for a while so thank you for your service thank you Public [Applause] Schools all right our next item we have two different of minutes um so the first motion will me is for our special budget meeting on March 10th right and a second all right and all those in favor that's going to be and two exensions okay just two extensions Jen all right but the motion passes okay now we have another motion the regular meeting on March 10th also the same motion second second from J all those in favor for that meeting so that's going to be four zero and one Obion all right administrator thank you and good evening once again I have one uh update for the board and Community this evening
003and it's regarding the Elementary School HVAC project so some of you may know uh during the month of March uh bids were submitted for completion of this job B were opened and reviewed and to our dismay was reported by cers and gilban that the bids came in $1.2 million over the projected amount the building committee met last week uh to discuss this overage and um no decision was made as to the way forward multiple options are being talked about there's another meeting tomorrow uh that discussion will continue um and you know then this started this process started in 2021 and there there have been Peaks and valleys throughout and I would say that this is definitely a valley moment uh for uh the committe tomorrow we will be wrestling with a possible way forward what's
004on the table is could potentially be a pause in the project to reevaluate um it could be a discussion about reducing the project scope and that would involve a discussion with the community because the community supported the project in a certain way and any change to that would would have to involve some discussion about our next steps we have contacted of administrative services to find out exactly what happens if we pause with that grant funding and I will continue to update this board and the community as we receive updates about our next STS so the town is aware now you are aware and the next meeting is tomorrow that's my all right so now our next item is to have Kevin n Nichols from Morgan Stanley so Kevin welcome back uh so the good news
005is that you know the pension is doing very very well uh probably is the last actual evaluation that's going to come out soon going % funded uh last fiscal year you're up about n over 9% uh this fiscal year you're closer to about 3% um there are some changes that we want to make in the portfolio going to this fiscal year as you can see on kind of the sum sheet there is one manager that really sticks out uh Congress midcap growth equity which has severely underperformed excuse me Kev are you more comfortable sitting down I'm fine standing is that okay okay whatever you're um severely underperformed uh in the last I'd say you know really nine months uh from security selection and we are we have a midcap value manager so what we'd like
006to do is liquidate Congress midcap growth put half of that into Roy Premier which is a small cap manager Focus mostly on value and the other half of that we would like to allocate to Lazard International Market uh two reasons really being that one adds a little bit more diversification to the portfolio two small caps relative to large caps there's a big valuation Gap there same with International relative to large caps uh International's actually done a lot better this calendar year than us markets have so that's any questions thoughts I mean I'm not I don't want to micromanage you guys make the decision does a recession concern you with small caps and then I guess the other side of that is the decision on the potential for deregulation yes so the thing that really concerns
007me is that regardless of whether you're Democrat republ Republican independent uh Trump being tffs on tffs on tffs on tffs on really freezes up capital in the US trying to onore a lot of things but if you are a business owner you're not going to build a plant outside of the US and you're not going to build a plant inside the us if you keeps on waffling on these tarff things so we really need a clear agenda before we figure out exactly what's going to happen with the economy that hasn't happened yet when you look at sort of his you know first term he was much more i' say clear and concise about what he's going to do uh he really wanted to battle China right that was his biggest thing now creating trade Wars
008with Mexico China Canada you know Europe un right and it's kind of off and on so it depends on how I'd say tough he is on the tariffs and whether that's going to cause some sort of recession we do feel as a firm though that if there is a recession it's going to be a very quick and soft one because one the feder Will Spring action and two he will have a very um Trump trump really cares about the economy he cares about the stock market whether he likes to say he doesn't um there'll be a quick response as we we saying so we feel like it'll be a very short Li recession as well uh and then to your point about small caps that's one of the reasons that they sort of traded off
009here but the valuation Gap is still very it's basically the highest has been in 25 years relative to large caps so we feel like there's a good amount of downside injection there because the Val and then the other one was Internationals Emerging Markets International with emerging market so it's a it's a it's an international manager Lazard who you know kind of they have they're one of the experts I guess you could say in the international markets and they have Emerging Market exposure that they can have in their International fund so it can go up to 15% of international exposure right now they're about seven or eight% so it gives us kind of the flexibility to be more develop those have massively underperformed us yeah last 15 years yeah seems to be a reversal though happen
010my question is is still with maybe it's an Administration question America First policies does that concern you with International so again valuation discount so I feel like you give a little bit of a of a you know buffer on the downside there the second thing is you know the US Imports more than it exports right so we're actually more reliant on economies when they are on us um they can be a little bit more self-sufficient than probably we can uh so I think that at the end of the day when there's a big trade deficit like that we have here we understand that we can't just flip the switch it's going to have to be very very gradual um and you know Emerging Markets especially better demographics here uh a lot of the you know
011technology that has benefited here in the US is actually a lot of the ancillary products and things like that are actually made outside of the US not just in China places like Malaysia Taiwan things like that so we feel like those will benefit as well hope you're right personally well really the net of it is the portfolio is very concerned right so uh it's about 35% fixed income 65% stocks we're not trying to you know shoot the lights out when things are either good or bad but what we really want to do is protect to the downside and if you look back at our fiscal year in 2022 you know I think we were down around like 11 12% 6040 portfolio is down about 18 so that's what we're trying to do is really protect
012the downside does so you don't need our approval to this just you're letting us know this is what you guys to do so one of the things I wanted to throw out to the group was if we look at the last three or four years of getting an update it's kind of been halfhazard we don't have a regular cycle and I'd like to get onto a regular cycle so I talked with Kevin a little before the meeting and my own preference would be we need to have an update at least once a year we can say we want it twice a year but I would like to have him come back during our July meeting so we can get an update at the end of the fiscal year right now we're kind of in the
013middle um but that's a board decision so I I'll throw that out does fiscal year matter to you though oh it does definitely should do an upd after I think it's important and I'd say what what if we do that in July and then we'll say okay now what do we want to do do we want to have them come back next July or do we want to have them come in you know in January at the end of the calendar year we'll see what in on that sounds good so we'll have you come back in July um and our meeting is the first Monday or the second M July 14 July 14 okay thank you Kevin thank you so much have a little bit of a change in cast tonight um Carolyn could not
014be with us so we have Ava dep filling in for starting off this EX and she worked very hard it was a labor of love that started in maybe September you'd see Emma walking around through the building with you know pieces to her house had one of my walls on the um in the hallway so that was fun and then some of them were I think you saw the some of the iterations of her home during Capstone so you can just see that um we had I want to say four entries or five entries into the the home show for for prizes we didn't walk away with prizes but our kids definitely did a fantastic job and learned a lot from the experience is this the first time you guys this is the first time
015we we've entered right sorry yeah you please me so my sophomore year so two years ago was the first time that we went um and kids have gone that was an architect design one but since the new class now it is the design so this is our so if I may was class ear that was like the highlight of my day one of them and we were just discussing the the winners they're trying to figure that out right so they don't share the rubrics it's been a really right they don't but Mr K is all over it because he took pictures oh right so oh yeah so we'll be we'll go at it again next year but I really appreciate your hard work and u commit to WPI for architectural engineering and here's some pictures
016from the drama production I went there I took the little girl at babysit and we both had the time of our lives it was a great night and I I do indoor track and so I spent a couple hours every day after school and they were there just in different groups and hallways and different rooms just really really working hard so it was really nice to all come together um great job drama families are no joke I'm not sure if you know this but Tech week moving into into the production the tech week when they're putting everything on stage and they're doing their dress rehearsals Drama parents they stepped to the plate they were feeding the kids every night they were in there they were sewing costumes putting like you name it they were doing
017it it was unbelievable a Chick-fil-A night Chick-fil-A night it was it was crazy um and even if you did go to the show just watching I I got to see the show multiple times which is great because by the last show it was the kids had had figured out how to read the audience and it was really it was really it was great to watch them grow through the actual like experience of Performing to everyone Frid was a little bit rougher but then by the time they hit that Saturday evening it was they they were feeling it it was fantastic and then these are some students that got the north central Chamber of Commerce uh student acts of kindness for the um Riley Donald and then up coming up we have a junior college night
018sat then just like there is the NHS Drive hopefully still runs we're trying to get as many people to sign up as possible um I know we've been sitting at the lunch table every day trying to recruit who we can um oh we had I think 20 something by making progress yes hoping for a few more students meet the height and weight requirements yeah and then the qu quarter three is ending on Monday so everybody's trying to finish up their class assignments test quizzes um and then on April 1 the training career fair will take place which we'll look at in the next couple slides um and then there's going to be a trip to Washington DC on April 3D through the 5th which M and I went on last year and you guys have
019heard about and just great trip overall so I'm sure they're very excited for that um and then the choices matter impact assembly I guess we're GNA be there's there's VR goles to to Showcase what it means or what would happen if you were drunk driving there's going to be things about responsibility relative to prom and some of the senior activities it's a lot of like making choices about driving all of those things come into that it's really a safety presentation we're one have six states that participate it's free to us they can come every year so it's a good good thing for our kids and then we'll also be having a Spirit Week along with the pep rally that just really school spirit together it's a lot of fun for all this is a website
020that Mrs STS created that show all of the different um vendors that we'll have that will be meeting with students to share opportunities career opportunities relative to their companies so they've broken it into uh building and moving cultivating resources caring for communities investing in the future and then creating experiences um those are career clusters that are from the National Organization of advanced CTE that Connecticut will be adopting probably within a month or so and so we are a jump ahead and we we're starting to pull some of our resources together to that's a great question the uh good uh choice is is that in partnership with the organization is that an organization as well organiz yep the organization comes in they they basically have a road show and they just show up and they do
021they have there's VR goggles for a simulation on Dr Driving there are contracts like prom promises things like that so um Mr saer is working them to pick strategically the best things for our students so that they are hopefully making wonderful choices throughout the upcoming months as a board how can we help you what would you want from what can we do most for you what just keeping supportive with all of our our students making you know everybody feel welcome and you guys already J [Applause] I know I'm just double Che on probation all right so opport to add and delete agenda items I see none so we'll take a motion for the consent agenda it and a second from Mike any questions on the consent agenda all those in favor that's unanimous old business
022none new business the New York City Art trip welcome hi nice to see you everybody I'm Kyle ker art teacher from the high school uh I know you think you have some info in your packet you coach too right I do yes art teacher and JB basketball coach um so yeah this is um so this uh this particular trip is one that we have done uh in the past so two years ago I came to the board and actually talked about this trip as well um and I think maybe there was other members or maybe actually was before actual Dr Galloway was part of our group too so um just to give you a quick overview it's our honors and a art students that will be going group of seniors um they've all been extremely
023dedicated to the Arts throughout their four years of high school um it had to be recommended in order to take this class it's our only full year course in art that we offer at the high school um and they've all been doing a great job this year um it's my third year teaching the APR class and um in there ahead I don't want to jinx myself but they're ahead of schedule um with what has been accomplished the last two years our students so really proud of their hard work so far this year um and yeah so I guess just to get to it uh our our AP and honors students so last year we switched it up and went to Boston for the day so we didn't need to stay the night short enough trip
024to just go for a day and then come back um so I was thinking I would get into kind of an alternating Boston New York kind of thing so on the same trip over but I'm actually excited to go back because it'll be kind of know like really know like the ins and outs of everywhere we're going and all that kind stuff so um so yeah so excited for second year very similar at the first time we went um Friday morning we would take off at 7:30 a.m. we take a school bus from the high school down to Haven we would take a train from New Haven station around 9 A.M so we would get into the city around 11:30 and then we would walk down to our hotel which is Pod 51 um it's
025option for staying in the city um the rooms are like bun bed style rooms so they're small um efficient for what we needed for uh prior to my trip uh two years ago um our previous APR teacher Miss C had taken students and gone and stay at the same Hotel several times so you had already kind of known what to expect there um so yeah so we' go to the Museum of Modern Art in the afternoon that day uh get lunch beforehand then after dinner um and then walk around shops in the area make sure to get back to the hotel by 800m um and then making sure all of our students are back by at least uh Saturday morning we get up early uh we walk around the corner to get some breakfast bring
026it back to the hotel actually a nice roof area that you can hang out at and so we brought our breakfast back up to the roof have breakfast there and then we will get on a subway part of this trip is to you know get some students who never been on a train or Subway some of that experience and so we get on the subway and take that to the Metropolitan Museum of um it's a really easy trip on the subway it's a pretty straight shot and then weo to leave for about 2:30 get on subway again Grand Central think that one you do have to Swit Subway but it's again pretty easy to get and then um so we'd be back to uh we' be taking the train back toen around 4M and then
027we have a 6m schedule bus bring us back to the high school so we should be back about 7.m or so um again just address for overnight accommodations is here the phone number um students would bump to to a room um just a little background Museum of Modern Art um is one of the regarded as one of the most important museums dedicated to Modern Art in the world um Metropolitan Museum if you're not already familiar is artwork from all history back through Egyptian to you know Renaissance artwork and then more modern artwork as well um and again one of the most highly regarded art in the world too so um you know our students will be engaging in discussions analyzing and interpreting artworks modern artworks and talking about artists in as well as getting to
028see kind of that historical pathway of how art has developed over time and that would just be valuable to their their artistic experience also looking to try and gather some inspiration want to do a neural project with this group which is something that the honors and APR students have always done and I haven't gotten a chance my third year I'm really feeling like because they're actually doing a pretty good job with their their work right now that we'll have time for that at the end of the year so try and gather some for our mural project for the end of the year um last couple of notes are just the number of students attending would probably be six to eight students uh our cost per student would be about $250 that's without their train ticket
029or food on the trip um and that is also pending our fundraiser so the last two years we've done a paint fundraiser which has been a lot of fun we've done well with that and we were able to usually knock off about for an overnight trip to the city is pretty good to shoot for and then just the names and numbers of the two Chon would be me and my partner Sarah so otherwise any questions for what happens stong uh so at the Metropol Museum they have lockers actually think might yeah so on the second day right because the first day we do leave most of our bags out the hotel so second day they do have very big all right so we'll have a motion motion to and second the motion okay questions discussion
030all those in favor and that's unle thank you so much all right next item is to set the graduation date of June 12th we want any comments on that be a great day my only come be an awesome day but you know just the time is flying I had an opportunity to walk the high school today be in classrooms and um you know I know it's important to do the best that they can to plan for family who might be traveling in and I think it's a safe time to establish that graduation well we checked last year and we didn't make this decision till the end of April but we really felt weatherwise let's go ahead and do it as Sam said great for parents grandparents travel plans all right so we will need a
031motion to set the graduation dat 12 2025 and second any questions is that also the last day of scho day goodness yes all right no we're coming to all those in favor that's unanimous all right okay next one a photo retake so like the way I like the way I no no that wasn't it we had talked about you know our communication corner and that we were going to have a board take our Board of that photo and enlarge it and put it up on the wall well long story short is it um when you make it that big it comes out blurry so my suggestion is we now are kind of going on our spring recess we don't meet again till April 28th which would give board members more than enough time to come
032up with their outfit to retake the board of picture every looking at me why is something V well because I'm not going to make that decision all myself we don't operate that right I think part of the problem in the photo if you go and look at the board photo the guys are all spread out it got too big in the back we need to have the guys touching each other you know closer together wait you can see the photo oh it's no everybody looked very nice but we just because it's a long skinny photo you know so what do you think I can s out aind I mean for it it's just to I know so and and we say we only have five tonight so I'll send Mery right I'll send an update
033out to everybody that wasn't here tonight and you know if we can get everybody there at that meeting we'll we'll do the phot good you can wear the same outfit at I thed up a little bit something else it's your choice okay all right committee reports are meeting 2 just by a few minut okay um policy we are going to try and meet in May of course April we only have one meeting and you're doing has the one meeting shape as far as the policies that we need to look at there's nothing that's mandated that we should have done a couple all right planning and finance um we just met tonight to RW the proposed budg just waiting on of Finance meeting a good discussion okay and that's 7 o' I think on Thursday negotiations
034here building committee Mike Sam pretty much said it all so we do have a meeting tomorrow at 2 o'clock and I think we'll learn a lot more about where do we go where do we go from here and so like tomorrow during this meeting would you guys feel like you're ready recomend something or will it take a little more than I'm sure lot i' be I'd be shocked if there's not a recommendation I'd be surprised if there wasn't okay good okay all right so there's no Cort SCF is shame so I don't think we have anything there so audience to Citizens staff and students we'll take a motion to adjourn from Jan and a second from Mike and all those in favor all right and we will adjourn at 7:40 thank you very much